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OK,

Let's try this again, I am obviously not making myself clear.

Chrstianity is based on the bible, the bible is a book, the book is around 1700 years old, some of the stories within that book are much older.

In the dark ages, which I blame squarely on the shoulders of the church were a time of extreme nothing. The church had power and therefore what it said went.

The church believed that the earth was the center of the universe, anyone that disagreed with them was excommunicated. If the church said that something was the way it was, then that is the way it was, end of story. Threat of eternal damnation will pretty much kill anything that would disagree.

The church wanted MORE power, so they destroyed anything and anyone that disagreed or was a threat, the crusades etc.

I do NOT say that christianisty is like that now, except for one respect.

You have fanatics that believe in the book of Genesis literally. Therefore the Theory of evolution is a threat to them. This is the SAME intellectual vacancy that existed in the dark ages. This is where it makes me a bit angry.

Other things about it make me angry as well, such as the obsession with, since I am a christian, I am right, and since you are not, you are wrong and are going to hell, but I digress.

The arguments that creationists, those that take Genesis literally, are vague, outright lies, or they twist evolutions studies into something that they are not. This also angers me.

Nothing like the Mr. Blueman with his refuted facts spouting them off over and over again. Again, he seems to think that the more he says them the more likely that they will become true.

This is the problem, those that disagree with evolution must distort it, lie about it, and make false claims against it. Create FALSE studies, that are refuted by scientists, and they are so loud and so obnoxious, that those that are less learned then most, shut their minds to the REAL facts of evolution and are suckered into doing MORONIC things like put disclaimers on science books.

Yes, the bible is unchanging, that is it's MAIN problem, it does NOT answer all the mysteries, and it cannot, because that knowledge was not available when the books were written, nor could they be answered, when the books were finally put together into the "bible".

The questions WILL be answered, and if those christians that believe the it literally get a chance, they will do their best to make sure that those questions are NOT answered.

Faith is a wonderful thing, please, keep your faith, but do not hold back civilization and science because it might disagree or possibly disprove some of the stories in your great book.

My basic premise? The church did this in the dark ages, let's learn from it and NOT do it again.

You're weak on your history.

Chrstianity is based on the bible,

It's based on the belief that Jesus is the Messiah. The Bible is the recording of the His teachings and life.

the bible is a book, the book is around 1700 years old, some of the stories within that book are much older.

The New Testament has been pretty much established as beginning in the mid-First Century -- with the range of the books being between 1,950 and 1900 years old.

The Old Testament, which is most of the Bible, is much older.

In the dark ages, which I blame squarely on the shoulders of the church were a time of extreme nothing.

Do you known when the "dark ages" were? How long they lasted and what caused them?

The church had power and therefore what it said went.

Actually, it's authority was very iffy in the dark ages. It was a time of struggle, many of the powers involved -- notably in England -- were anti-Christian

The church believed that the earth was the center of the universe, anyone that disagreed with them was excommunicated. If the church said that something was the way it was, then that is the way it was, end of story. Threat of eternal damnation will pretty much kill anything that would disagree.

Copernicus was likley a priest and certainly a church administrator. He was well respected and a consultant to Pope Leo X. His heliocentric theory was encouraged by Cardinal Schonberg, then Archbishop of Capua. In fact, it appears that he only published at the insistance of church leaders. He was in good standing with the Catholic church when he died.

The most stident opposition came from Protestents -- note the era in which Copernicus live. The "Church" was not speaking as one voice.

Galileo Galilei is generally the one cited as evidence of the Church's anti-science tilt. But while Galileo was told to shut up -- perhaps like Dembski and Behe today -- he was not beaten, blinded tortured or burned at the stake -- as is often alleged -- and his imprisonment consisted of 22 days in a luxury apartment. He was generally also well-respected by church authorities. Many agreed with his views. He was blessed by the Pope at his death and buried in a church.

A2,

Your arguments and apparently the root of your anger seem to be focused on something that happened 1000 years ago. I am not sure how the Papalcy of millenium has abused you personally, but as I demonstrated in my original question it is character flaw that brings more harm to yourself than I or any one else can.

You stated that you are student of religion and yet you only seem to know something about the Medieval Roman Catholic Church. I would like to point out that the "Chuch" at this time did not contain every or rule over all christians on the planet then or ever. One of the most important thing the "Church" did at the time was to make sure that the common person knew nothing of what the Bible actually said. If you will take the time to study more in depth what happened in that period of time what you find could be quite eye opening. In short the Roman Catholic Church quite simply was a political machine and can hardly be used as an example of what the Bible says or doesn't say.

If you are truly interested in learnig the truth then I again suggest you do so with open mind and humility in your heart.

To be honest I really don't think you find solace in convincing me that evolution is a scientific fact, you have a lot of anger towards the "Church" of a millenia ago and it is hard to figure out how you are going to deal with that. However if you think what the "Church" did to those who didn't believe in the flat earth was bad try reading "Fox's Book of Matyrs". It will put your arguments in a whole nother light.

Good night and good reading,
Boiler Plate